Animal Farm - George Orwell - A Short Summary & Review

Animal Farm - George Orwell - A Short Summary & Review

By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures

A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review

The pigs grew greedy and took away the farm's freedom.

A short summary:

Animal Farm by George Orwell is a sharp political allegory that begins with a hopeful revolution and ends in quiet tyranny. After overthrowing their human owner, the animals set out to create a society built on equality, shared labor, and collective freedom.

Over time, however, the pigs, who position themselves as leaders and intellectuals, gradually rewrite the rules. Language is manipulated, history is altered, and fear replaces solidarity. What begins as a shared dream of liberation devolves into a system more oppressive than the one it replaced.

Orwell compresses the rise of authoritarianism into a simple farmyard narrative, showing how power consolidates not solely through brute force, but also through propaganda, ignorance, and selective memory.

My favorite quote from the book:

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

- George Orwell, Animal Farm

Questions to ponder while reading:

Should the wealth you work for be given to others?

Who deserves the luxuries?

My review:

This is a timeless warning disguised as a short, deceptively simple fable.

Beware of propaganda.
Be educated.

Animal Farm illustrates how easily ideals can be corrupted when people stop questioning authority or allow others to do their thinking for them. The animals don’t lose their freedom all at once; they surrender it piece by piece, convinced each compromise is necessary, temporary, or for the greater good.

The story is brutal in its clarity. No side escapes critique, and no revolution is immune to rot. The humor is dark, the message blunt, and the lesson enduring: when language is controlled, truth follows.

And yes, eat your bacon. Just don’t let it rewrite the rules while you’re not paying attention.

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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life

She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.

You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.

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